Sh*t

F**k

F**king

A**hole

D**khead

The results were STAGGERING.

Topping the list, the word “f**king” increased open rates by a full 61.8%

Close on its heels was the word “f**k“, which saw open rates jump 53.2%

“Sh*t” pushed open rates up almost 45%, “a**hole” produced a 39.6% increase, and “d**khead” finished with a very respectable 33%.

In fact, some of the email subject lines this experiment generated produced unf**kingbelievable open rates.

A few of the highest performing ones we tracked were:

“Open this goddamn email or f**k off.” – Which was opened by 73.4% of recipients.

“You won’t f**king believe the sh*t inside this email!” –Which piqued the interest of a full 80.6% of recipients (and, oddly, also had a 49% Click Through Rate).

“Hey D**khead! Don’t miss out on this, you lobotomised sh*tlark.” – Opened by 83.8% of recipients.

But the king of them all, the email subject line that caused us to pause and seriously ponder the possibility that adding profanity to email subject lines might actually be the most profitable course of action moving forward, was a simple, three word message, that incited a 96% open rate. It was:

“Go f**k yourself.”

For some reason, almost no one who received an email with this 3-word subject line was able to ignore it.

We suppose that is understandable, really. If we saw that in our inbox we would probably be curious too.

The main lesson: start swearing in your f**king subject lines and a**holes will open those sh*tbags. Got it?

(Editor’s note: before using these strategies, scroll up and check what day this study was conducted on…)